Happy Sunday Everyone:
My CEO and a co-worker made a decision in 2018, one I’m now doing with a few other folks, including Jack (my oldest son). They decided they were going to do a push-up every single day of the year. Obviously Jan 1 is not exactly a celebration, but December 31st is i.e. 365 pushups in a day, would be. They don’t need to be in a row, you just need to do them throughout the day. They completed the goal, not as competitors but as a team. I was curious and asked them both if they thought they would have done it alone had the other person not been involved? Both answered with a laughing/emotional, “absolutely not”. They would simply text each other every day. when the push-ups were complete. Had me thinking as I take on a new group of coaching students for the next six months, how do we think about accountability. As I take on a new coach myself, and as we all take on a new year, how do we think of accountability? How serious do we take it, and what does it truly mean?
The definition of accountable is: “required or expected to justify actions or decisions; responsible”. Doesn’t sound like much fun, so then I look up the definition of responsible: “having an obligation to do something, having control over or care for someone, as part of one’s job or role”…..Both definitions makes sense, neither sound great. Words inside the definitions of “required, expected, justify, control, and obligation”, those words sound like work, or in some cases, manipulative. the only words that I pull out as a positive are “care for someone”. For me, and the way my brain works best is if I can reframe a thought, process, or an action, it helps me with my motivation to do or accomplish that thought, process, or action. I know I’ve patted myself on the back enough for not eating meat for six months for losing a bet, but when I think about that, and what I did, which wasn’t easy for me, I’m not sure I’d have done it because I “lost the bet”. When I reframe this and say “I’m not eating meat because I told my boys I was going to do something, I owe it to them to show them accountability for one’s word”, it became easy(er). I reframed, or repurposed, my action. My CEO/co-worker, repurposed the daily task of push-ups into not doing the push up in and of itself, but not letting the other person down. Them doing push-ups was a whatever, not letting each other down, was everything.
We all need to reframe what accountability means and get away from it being a negative, or work, or a job. Accountability is an honor, it’s a gift. It means people care about you, it means people rely on you, it means people believe you (or in you), it means people trust you, it means people love you. So many of us today, including me, think of accountability as a weight. How many times have we said “I’m tired of being accountable”, “I’m tired of people relying on me”, “I’m tired of having to show up every day”….Think of the opposite….No one needs me to care about them, no one needs to rely on me, no one needs to believe me, or in me, no one needs to trust me, no one needs me to love them, although this might sound good for a moment, it certainly isn’t how I want to walk through life. Being accountable to my wife, my boys, my team, my clients, my business partners, my students, my friends, my co-workers….everyone, it’s a gift and should be considered as such.
This is probably going a bit too deep but the more accountable you are to what I’m talking about above, the more accountable you end up being to yourself. Accountability to others is a continuous training exercise to be accountable to yourself, to your word, internally and externally, which to me, in the end, is everything.
Have a great week ahead.